International Quinoa Salad

This vegan quinoa salad features tiny pearls of quinoa drenched in tangy, chili-seasoned dressing, with cubes of avocado that melt in your mouth and cucumbers and chickpeas for a little bit of crunch.

Whenever my husband sees that I’m cooking quinoa, his eyes light up and he asks if I’m making “The Salad.” It’s our favorite quinoa dish, but for a while I made it only on special occasions because I couldn’t figure out how to make it without using olive oil. I was just afraid that it wouldn’t be as tasty–and who can stand to see a favorite dish diminished? But I was determined to try to lighten up the recipe so that we could enjoy this fantastic salad more often, and I’m proud to say that I’ve done it. I think that this recipe is so good that you’ll never miss the olive oil.

It’s based on a recipe by Lorna Sass called Quinoa Salpiçon, a sort of South American version of the Middle Eastern grain salad tabouli, with lots of parsley as in tabouli but using quinoa instead of bulgur wheat. I like to think of it as a blend of cultures, a little of the Old World mixed with the New, though even the “new” ingredients date back thousands of years. Quinoa was first cultivated 5000 years ago. It was a staple food of the people in the Andes Mountains in Peru and Bolivia and was considered a sacred grain of the Incas. Chickpeas were first cultivated around 7000 years ago in Turkey, but their use spread from there to western Europe, and they’ve become an important part of the diets of many cultures.

I took the original salad and added a few ingredients–the corn and chili powder to enhance its South American flavor and the chickpeas to complement its Middle Eastern roots. And, of course, I’ve made it oil-free by replacing the olive oil with vegetable broth. The result is wonderful–tiny pearls of quinoa drenched in tangy, chili-seasoned dressing, with cubes of avocado that melt in your mouth and cucumbers and chickpeas for a little bit of crunch. It’s a perfect marriage of ingredients–and cultures.

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced (reserve a few slices for garnish)

Dressing:

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (NOT lemon)

3 tablespoons vegetable broth or bean cooking liquid

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste (optional)

1/8 teaspoon ground pepper

1 clove garlic, pressed or minced

1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon chipotle chili pepper

Instructions

To cook the quinoa in a pressure cooker, place it and the water, garlic, and salt in the cooker and lock the lid. Over high heat, bring to high pressure and cook for one minute. Remove from heat and allow the pressure to come down naturally. Fluff the quinoa and allow it to cool. (To cook it on the stove, use 2 1/2 cups of water. Rinse the quinoa and toast it in a saucepan over medium heat. Add water, garlic, and salt and bring to a boil. Cover tightly, reduce heat, and cook until all water is absorbed, about 15 minutes. Fluff and cool.)

Combine all of the vegetables in a large bowl. Add the quinoa and mix well. Whisk the dressing ingredients together and pour over the salad. Mix well and refrigerate until chilled. Taste before serving, and add more lime juice as necessary (you want it to be tangy). Garnish with avocado slices and serve. Makes about 8 servings.

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Susan,I feel compelled to comment since I've made this salad about 10 times in the past year. In fact, I'm eating it right now. I add about 1/4 cup of olive oil and more pepper to the dressing, but other than that I stick to your recipe. It's so delicious! Also, great for bringing to parties where meat-eaters reign supreme. Oh, and I often take it to work for lunch, served over greens, with a little extra lemon-olive oil dresing. mmmm!Thank you!

Wow, 150 people! You are braver than I am. 😉 I think it should be alright to do everything except the avocado a day or two ahead. To go longer than that, I suggest chopping everything but not adding the dressing until the day before. Whatever you do, don't add the avocado until just before serving or they will get brown.

With all the rave reviews, I am going to try this as our side dish/salad for the dinner party tonight. As I do not have the chipotle spices, I intend to use Thai SriRacha pepper sauce. Excited to see how it turns out! Thanks Susan

I never thought of jalapeno as bitter, so maybe I’m not the best person to answer this question. The best option would be to leave it out and add whatever kind of spicy pepper or hot sauce you like to taste.

Thank you for this recipe! I made the salad for a father’s day celebration yesterday and it was a hit!! Lot’s of prep work, but it all paid off. I think next time I will add more dressing. I ended up juicing a few extra limes on the fly for a bit more kick.

I finally got around to making this and wish I had tried it sooner! It was fantastic. Even my picky husband who claims he “hates quinoa and chickpeas” had 2 whole bowls for dinner! The only thing I’ll change next time is instead of the jalepeno, I’ll just add a tsp of asian chili/lime paste. Thank you for your creativity!

I made this for 4th of July. Omitted the chickpeas (we had baked beans already) & used anaheim chili, mint, oregano & tarragon since I was out of parsley. Everyone loved it, including the meat-eating, wanting to try more vegan food family I had over. The kids all ate it too! It’s a keeper! I was glad to have a little leftover for lunch today. Thank you!

I made this yesterday… This is the real deal! I tried eating (and cooking) quinoa before, but didn’t really like the taste. So this time, I added the salt in the cooking process. I know the salt is optional, but I think it makes a HUGE difference. Thanks for that recipe Susan!

The best! My friend and I started walking and make our Friday night walks extra enticing by making a healthy dinner. This was our first Friday night walk and dinner…and it was SO AMAZING! We’re still talking about it (and eating it) today. I love it chilled. Cooking the corn on the cobs makes it so fresh. The dressing is delicious. No olive oil needed…This is a festival of flavor 🙂

Susan – I found this recipe by Googling “quinoa recipes”. It’s quite possibly the best dish I’ve ever prepared. EVER. I can’t wait to share it with everyone I know – I’m sure it will become my go-to potluck contribution. I also look forward to trying more of your recipes. Glad to finally find some healthy, vegan food with FLAVOR! Thanks much.

i discovered your site on friday and made two of your recipes this weekend. i’m not vegan NOR fat-free, but make a strong effort to eat healthy, organic and locally (ie as much as my wallet allows). my weekends start out with saturday coffee and excitedly mulling through recipes to make for the week. sundays, the fiance and i hit the market. i usually cook two large batches of whatever for breakfasts and lunches throughout the busy week. this week’s menu was your pesto mashed potato stuffed portabellos, but added red a generous amount of red pepper flakes (oh.my.effing.god delicious) and the international quinoa salad. i goofed a bit on this one. it was the first time i’d made (or eaten) quinoa and it came out great (and tasty – i love this!), but i figured it wouldn’t be flavorful enough for us (we have a VERY high spice tolerance being from the southwest). i added cayenne and jalapeno with seeds, which wasn’t too spicy, but stole from the other balanced flavors. i omitted corn, which i didn’t have, but i’m sure the sweetness of it would have solved the problem. instead, i added sweet red bell peppers and the tiniest amount of agave nectar. BOOM! quinoa salad saved. thank you for these recipes! alicia silverstone can stuff it!

My goodness, heather, I hope you mean she can stuff it into a bell pepper or something! I’m not sure what prompted your remark, but I’ve got only respect for Alicia Silverstone and think she’s done a lot for veganism and for animals. But I’m glad you enjoyed the recipes–nice save on the quinoa salad.

Susan,
LOVE this salad and it has become a weekly staple. I’m a student and this is a great healthy choice I can pre-make and take with me for a few days.
Some alterations:
1/3 the amount of veggie broth and 1 Tbsp of olive oil (not fat free, I know), and 1/2 Tbsp of chili flakes to the dressing,
Cilantro instead of mint,
Green bell pepper instead of jalapeno adds a nice crunch. 🙂
Your site is great and I can’t wait to try more!

I made this again without any salt and used salt free broth. Although it was still good, the flavor did suffer. (Pretty much expected.) I added just a tiny bit of salt after trying half a bowl and it is good enough for me to eat on my own, but if I was serving to company I would all the salt back and use broth with salt. I prefer this dish warm instead of chilled, so I mix in the tomatoes, avocado, scallions, cucumber, mint, parsley, and jalepeno to the quinoa when the quinoa has just finished cooking and then add heated chickpeas and corn to it. I also use grape tomatoes in this dish.

Absolutely loved this salad. I did swith a few ingridients,well more then a few.I used a lemon even though I was warned not to,lol, but thats all I had. Lentils instead of chikpeas and some other veggies and I did used some olive oil cause didn`t had veg. broth. Still it came out great,fresh and pretty filling.Another keeper for me.

I officially found my salad for this summer!
I just made a mistake but with no bad results; I forgot to buy tomatoes and parsley and for some reason i got confused with the greek salad so I ended mixing black olives.
The combination of flavors make this salad not boring at all (jalapeno and garlic touch.. sooo good!). I made it try to someone who hardly ever eat salads and ended asking for some more.

Hi there. Your recipes look great and I’m looking forward to making them. I have one question on cooking quinoa. I’ve never made quinoa before, does it have to be cooked in a pressure cooker? Is there another way? Thank you.

Glad you found the answer! I now think that it’s a little silly to cook it in the pressure cooker when it only takes 15 minutes in a regular pot. I get it boiling and then turn the heat very low and cover the pot.

Susan,
I love this recipe, but I cook for one and I hate to waste food, even though it still happens way too often (I buy fresh produce that only comes in large quantities, especially alfalfa sprouts, but can never eat all of it before it goes bad) and as far as I know, no veggie broth comes in 3 tbsp amounts, I do know one that has four individual packets of 1 cup, but what can I do with leftover broth, does freezing it work?

I made this today for part of our Easter dinner! It was delicious. I did have to use canned garbanzos so didn’t use the bean sauce & used just a touch of olive oil. I also used Red Quinoa since that was what I had on hand. Thanks for the recipe!

Made this yesterday to rave reviews! I did not have cucumber, so I threw in some celery and green bell pepper. It was delicious. Then, my neighbor came over last night and brought me cucumbers from her garden, so i added it to the leftovers. Now it’s even better! I will make this again and again, I’m sure. I think it would be good with green peas too. I love salad lunches in the summer, and lunch is always the biggest challenge for me in the vegan lifestyle. I can only make tofu sandwiches so many days a month without a mutiny! Thanks again.

I love this salad. I made if for July 4th and again last night for a potluck, where it was loved by all (and appreciated by the gluten-free folks!). I leave out the chipotle pepper based on my own personal tastes, and I am amazed at what a great oil-free dressing this is! No one would suspect it’s oil-free, I think. There’s a whole lot of flavor in this salad. It’s a keeper for me for sure!

Hi! I want to try making this tonight for a dinner party. My problem is that I hate mint and cilantro (which I read was a good sub for the mint)….can this be left out without the flavor suffering too much?

Susan,
This is my first comment here although I’ve made quite a few of your dishes and love them all. I’ve been making this salad for years now. It is always extremely popular everywhere I bring it, with veggie/grain lovers or not. And it is extra amazing being that it is so delicious without using any olive oil which I almost always use in salads. It’s flavor delivers so well from the tangy lime juice and interesting herbs and pepper and chipotle that no oil is needed, making it the perfect healthful food. SOOOO good.
Thank you!!
Joy

It should work the same in an electric pressure cooker as a regular one. Most of the cooking will be done in that standing time as it falls in pressure. If you’re worried, you could cook it for 2 minutes rather than one.

Honestly, I no longer use the PC for quinoa because it’s just as fast to cook it on the stove.

That sounds delicious Susan. Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful recipes. I will never run out of things to make thanks to you. I cannot wait to try this version. It seems a had made a recipe from Jill Nussinow of The Veggie Queen a few years ago that was also called International Quinoa Salad. I loved it. It too was absolutely delicious. Yours sounds quite different than hers and look forward to making it once I get moved. It’s driving me crazy that I can’t find the notebook I had some of her recipes in so that I could at least see if the name was the same, and if so compare ingredients. Guess I’ll go to her website and find out. Not that it matters one iota because I adore collecting healthy recipes regardless of names. You just can’t beat a good quinoa recipe. Thanks again for all you do for your subscribers. You rock Susan!

Just made this and it’s wonderful! Thank you for this recipe! I will happily be eating this for days. I love how it has grains, legumes, vegetables and terrific flavor (love the lime!). This will be my next potluck dish. 🙂

Wow! I underestimated this recipe. I’ve seen it numerous times, and every time just thought that it was just quinoa salad, nothing special. Made it tonight and I am so in love (although, I will admit, I used the olive oil. I’m breastfeeding, so extra fat is okay here). It’s like summer in a bowl!

I have been looking for a quinoa salad recipe some time now, and I came across this. I would love to try it, but I do not have a pressure cooker. I attempted to look thru the other comments to see if someone had already touched on this subject, but there are just too many to go thru! Is there any other way to cook this if a slow cooker is not available? I have a rice cooker, but thats about it! Thanks!

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